Dawn Xiana Moon: Melodic folk pop infused with passion and honesty. From Chicago.

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Monday, December 27, 2004

News in a Nutshell

Dawn's adventures around the country (and Canada) continue: I'm leaving for Kansas City in less than four hours and will be gone for the next week.

Kansas City: The trip is comprised of three parts:

First, the primary reason for driving 12 hours with two other girls is the Onething conference (with a new and improved website, I see), hosted by the International House of Prayer (IHOP). I'm curious to see IHOP in action--they host prayer 24-7 and I've read a number of articles by Mike Bickle that have fostered my respect for the founder.

Second, I've gotten in contact with some swing dancers in KC and am excited to dance with them; they seem like an incredibly friendly group, giving me info on where to dance (live music!) and an ice skating outing and a handful of phone numbers should I need to get in touch with someone while I'm away from the computer. They're hosting a lindy exchange later this year, so I imagine I'll make some friends that I'll want to visit then (and I've been asked to let the crew know that another Ann Arbor dancer is going to visit them in a week as well).

Third, I'm playing my first out-of-state show on January 1, which seems a bright way to begin a year in which I'm hoping to travel more frequently for music. Ideally I'll tour through the Durham/Chapel Hill area, Chicago, New York, DC, London (Ontario), and Minneapolis; the funny part is I'm planning tours to those areas primarily so I can justify visiting friends who are consistently spreading out around the country. This is ambitious, so we'll see what happens; a new year is always filled with new opportunity, and as Marcus said on Babylon 5, "[In response to "You're having delusions of grandeur."] If you're going to have delusions, you might as well have the really satisfying ones."

Indiegrrl: After haunting their email list for a while, I finally sent in my application to become a performing member of Indiegrrl. The results came via email today: "Only 20% of the submissions we receive are of the caliber we require for performing membership, so you are part of a select group of performers who can perform during Indiegrrl events." I'm in! This makes me really happy, since there's a wealth of knowledge and a number of widely respected performers in the Indiegrrl community.

So this was a long nutshell. I missed wishing everyone a merry Christmas, so I'm going to catch the next holiday early (I'll be gone anyway, unless I find unexpected internet access): Happy New Year!

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Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Adventures in Northern Michigan, Part II

When we left our heroes, they had battled their own forgetfulness, found a new friend in a one-handed guitarist, conquered the mysterious BUMP, and realized just how directionally challenged they were as they approached Crisis #4.

Crisis #4, also known as "Get me to the church on time," started at 8pm when the kind lady at the gas station/general store we'd stopped at for directions informed Alex that Petoskey was an hour and a half drive. And the show at Harmony Grounds was supposed to start in an hour. But never fear, I was borrowing my mom's Jeep for the weekend and even non-existent visibility and slippery roads can't stop a frantic musician armed with four-wheel drive. Or as Alex put it, "Come rain or shine, sleet or snow, we will not go slower than 80 miles an hour or we'll probably die." I think I scared him; I was doing 85-90mph on roads neither of us could see. (Side note: somewhere in that time, we resolved Crisis #1 when we finally managed to get ahold of Steph. Apparently her mom needed her and she hadn't called us because she figured we'd call her--a reasonable assumption that fell apart when she left her phone off all day.)

Unfortunately, the Jeep guzzles gas like a camel drinks water, and four-wheel drive doesn't help. I refused to stop until we got to the venue, even though it meant driving on E longer than I was comfortable with. But like the good car it is, the Jeep didn't decide to choke until we were parking in front of the coffeeshop--a which point it coughed loudly in protest. In a totally uncharacteristic verbalization, I swore and Alex was amused.

Then came the next funny moment: the realization that no one was in the café. Apparently they're usually packed on Saturday nights, but that day the shop was dead. "We haven't had a food order since 4pm." So Alex and I played for an audience of one (thanks Neil!), or two if you include the owner. Some stats to consider the next time you think musicians make money: I was playing for tips, and our tips totaled $7. Total spent on gas to that point: $50. Yup, I'm raking it in. But hey, at least I have fun stories to write about.

Luckily, we didn't have to spend money on a hotel. Following my habit of crashing with random people (another side-effect of becoming a hardcore swing dancer--this becomes totally normal), the café's cook took us in for the night, and we found all these crazy connections with his girlfriend Julie (at least I'm assuming she was his girlfriend). Alex and Julie bonded over being psych majors. And going to Oakland University. And thus had studied with three of the same professors. Julie and I bonded over being theatre majors. And familial ties in Redford. It's so cliché, but whenever something like that happens you can't resist the urge to say, "It's a small world."

The next day, the incredible staff of Harmony Grounds hooked us up with free food (thanks) and after jotting notes on Alex's computer so we'd remember the extent of our adventures, we drove to Saginaw. With our history of directional challenges we made sure to leave plenty of time for the trip. Too much time, in fact. We arrived in Saginaw two hours before we could get into the venue. So I called my friend Loren, whose parents still live in that city, and asked for recommendations on how to kill a couple of hours. As it turns out, there isn't much to do in Saginaw. But he did manage to direct us to the section of town with a mall and strip mall (I'll save the commentary on suburban sprawl for another day)… and Alex and I found ourselves in the same parking lot that contained the Guitar Center that had saved me the day before.

After an excursion to Best Buy that resulted in Alex acquiring a new--ridiculously cheap--hard drive, we decided to drive to the church and run some songs in the parking lot. While there, we met a couple of junior high kids who were waiting for their youth group to start, including Matt, who would later become an official groupie (at least that was the agreed-upon price for allowing him to borrow my cell phone in order to listen to its flip-open and -close tones for the rest of the night. But he didn't get to keep it as long as he could have--he was so happy about the noises it makes that an unknown adult got tired of hearing the constant brrrring! and took it away).

The kids at Peace Lutheran were hilarious and the staff was wonderful--and I even got to play a grand piano instead of my keyboard that night, which is a real treat. So all went well and we headed back to Ann Arbor in a much more relaxed state of mind than the one in which we'd begun the weekend.

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